Chapter 116

  In mid-to-late May, the domestic had already entered the plum rain season. His mother would send him WeChat messages every day to complain about the weather, the endless rain and the clothes that couldn't be dried, the dampness everywhere in the house - even Jianran, who was far away abroad, could feel the damp air coming from the phone screen. Fortunately, on the Berlin side, except for the relatively large temperature difference between day and night, the rainfall was not excessive. However, out of habit, Jianran still wore a raincoat every time he went out, just like the locals. One day, at the breakfast table, Jiangchuan saw it and looked very surprised, then asked him if he had suddenly felt that Berlin wasn't as bad as he had imagined.

  He thought for a moment, whether he liked it or not, he had been in this place for so long, arguing about this issue was a bit suspicious of farting with his pants down, but since Jiang Chuan didn't seem to be willing to let him skip this topic, he could only answer vaguely: "It's almost the same, after all, the people around me now are different from before."

  Actually, he meant to say that with people like Andre gone, and Claire's staff working every day, there was nothing to complain about. But it's unclear whether his words made Jiang Chuan think of something else. In any case, the man showed a very satisfied expression after hearing them.

  Jiang Chuan put down the coffee cup in his hand and used his large hands, which carried a faint scent of tobacco, to pat the head of the young black-haired man beside him. As the latter muttered in protest, "I'm older than you, don't be so quick to act," Jiang Chuan lowered his head again to continue reading his newspaper, asking without looking up, "We're leaving for the Balearic Islands the day after tomorrow, is your luggage ready?"

  After a while without getting an answer, he lifted his head to find that the black-haired young man sitting across from him had turned into a monkey's butt face. The man was slightly surprised and raised an eyebrow: "What?"

  "Ready already, hey, why are you asking so many questions like an old mother!!"

  In Jiangchuan, a casual question unexpectedly triggered a strong reaction, leaving him with a bewildered expression. He calmly raised his hand to rub his face, and his thoughts inadvertently drifted back to the past few days...

  "What the f*** is this!!!!!! I told you to buy me a few swimsuits, what kind of ghost thing did you bring back!!!!!!"

  "Swim trunks, sexy."

  "What's with the pink elephant nose in front and the hollow heart behind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

  "An elephant's trunk can hold your ding-ding, hollowed-out love hearts can reveal your sexy butt crack. Look, the pink border is like a little peach."

  "Little, little Peach - Ugh, how can something like this possibly be worn outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

  "There are people showing off their butts on the beach, what's wrong with just showing a butt crack? - Tsk, such a conservative person is still talking big and letting his agent buy sexy swimsuits for him. Yuan Jinran, you're really something, you'd be most suited to wearing dull black square-cut swim trunks for middle-aged men."

  "Deducting wages!!!!!"

  "I swear on the name of Li Gou Hai, this swimsuit will eventually be sent online, along with evidence of the purchase made under Yuan Jin Ran's name."

  “……”

  That's all for now, end of reminiscence.

  The pink swimsuit now lies quietly at the bottom of his luggage, pressed under four or five pairs of "dull and uninteresting black square-cut swim trunks for middle-aged men" - Zhen Ran doesn't even know what he was thinking when he didn't destroy it but instead packed it into the box, after all, still somewhat resentful that he is considered a "middle-aged man" with conservative aesthetics by Fang Yu.

  Thinking of this, Jian Ran felt a little guilty and glanced at the man sitting across from him, quietly and elegantly enjoying his breakfast. In about fifteen minutes, they would have to get up from the table, pay the bill, leave the restaurant, say goodbye, and then Jiang Chuan would drive Jian Ran to the recording studio before going to take care of his own work...

  I don't know why...

  "Stop staring at me, eat quickly. If we don't leave here before 8 o'clock, we'll be stuck in traffic and I'll be late to take you to the recording studio and then to my company."

  Jian Ran: "Oh."

  For some reason, I always have a strange feeling of having slipped into married life.

  They haven't even started dating yet.

  He quietly wiped his face and silently sighed in his heart.

  ……

  Two days later.

  Almost half of the crew of the nautical film chartered a plane to depart for the Balearic Islands in Spain, which is located in the western Mediterranean and has an average annual sunshine of about 300 days. It is a famous tourist resort in Northern Europe - the azure sea, the bright sunshine, the warm and soft sandy beach, and the melodious sound of seagulls flying freely in the clouds... In May, this terrible season when it rains everywhere and every day is overcast, just thinking about it makes people feel refreshed.

  If it weren't for the heavy responsibility of finding the right theme song, he would definitely be in a very good mood.

  Unfortunately, until he set out for the airport, his work was still at a loss - he felt that he had fallen into the lowest point of his life since entering the circle.

  Really.

  Even when it was Xu Qianqian, he wasn't as annoyed as he is now - if threats from others made him feel uneasy, then the threat from himself made him fearful and full of frustration.

  And he still needs to hide his anxiety in front of people.

  Because he didn't know who to talk to about his troubles - sometimes wanting to pour out his heart to Jiang Chuan, but before opening his mouth, he would become disheartened and realize that after everything that had happened in Berlin, he seemed to have completely lost the ability to interact with Jiang Chuan as naturally as before.

  Two people spent the whole day together, like a couple, but without any formal acknowledgment - more than friends, less than lovers - this terrible state made everything look wrong, but when Jian returned to that completely ambiguous period before, he wasn't so willing.

  To sum it up, this is a bittersweet double torment.

  Berlin is indeed a cursed land (......).

  Can't wait to leave this broken place... With one hand supporting her chin, she absent-mindedly flipped through the script of the movie theme song's MV while gazing out the window at the clouds.

  Before departing for Spain, the production team held an overnight meeting to finalize the film's budget and documents, officially confirming the movie's title as "Leviathan". The director, Peter, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, had always felt that the original title "The First Mate is Not Easy" sounded more like a light comedy than the grand, epic sea-faring saga he envisioned... or in simpler terms, it just didn't have enough swag.

  "Actually, changing to the current name doesn't make it any better than before. If I didn't see the plot, I would think this is a maritime version of 'Godzilla'..." When the sound of releasing the seatbelt rang out, Jian Ran finally closed the folder with a slap and let out a long sigh, "I don't know what he's thinking."

  "Are you talking about the movie title or the MV script?" Sitting next to him, Jiang Chuan took off his sunglasses and casually put them in his pocket, bent down to check the safety belt for him, then reached out to pull out the file folder from his arms, opening it quickly to scan through.

  An entire MV is accurately speaking a complete story.

  A sailor sat on a rock in the moonlight, singing a song. The song attracted the sea nymph Siren from the deep sea to float up - in mythological legend, the sea nymph Siren uses her song to confuse the enemy and then drags it into the sea to kill it. Just as the Siren was about to use her throat to confuse the sailor who was singing on the rock and drown him to death, she unexpectedly discovered that this time the sailor was a very handsome young man.

  The Siren crouched on the reef, patiently singing a song with the sailor for an entire night. The sailor was puzzled as to why such a beautiful young person would be out at sea in the middle of the night when the tide was rising, but he was delighted to have found someone who shared his interests. As the night wore on and the sun began to rise slowly over the horizon, the sailor gradually became tired. It was then that the Siren finally extended its own claws, smiling as it invited the sailor to go fishing with itself.

  The young sailor agreed with him without much hesitation, unaware that he was falling into a dangerous situation.

  The Siren dragged the sailor into the sea, wanting to drown him. Because of the mermaid's confusion, the young sailor kept smiling at him until he was about to drown, with a smile that was exactly the same as when they sang together last night - such a smile moved the Siren, and before the young sailor drowned, he kissed him.

  At this point, the song enters its second phase.

  The young sailor woke up by the sea, his body already dry. He wondered if everything from last night was just a dream - until he met again at the market the beautiful young man who sang with him last night...

  The two quickly became inseparable friends, and the young sailor shared his maritime dreams with each other. They joined forces and joined the largest pirate organization together. The two fought side by side for many years, rapidly becoming a powerful pirate captain, even renowned throughout the Mediterranean. There was no discord or suspicion between them, they were intimate...

  But every full moon night, the friend would appear exhausted and confused, until one day, he could no longer contain his curiosity. The young sailor pretended to bid farewell to his friend and returned to the cabin, but actually followed him secretly. Then he saw with his own eyes that his companion jumped into the water on a moonlit night, his legs transformed into a fish tail, sinking into the deep sea.

  He found his dispirited friend on the second day and asked him about everything he had seen the previous night. Siren was honest and frank, but the sailor was unable to accept this fact and was shocked. At that moment, another encounter broke out, and the two of them didn't even have time to give each other some explanations before picking up their weapons and joining the battle.

  In this battle, the young sailor was seriously injured, and blood covered the entire deck. Everyone was mourning for him, they prepared a shroud to wrap his body, ready to return him to the sea. No one noticed that the sailor's best friend had disappeared without a trace - until he was thrown into the sea. The sailors standing on the deck suddenly saw the calm sea surface turn into a stormy wave, and the entire ocean turned red with blood...

  Nobody knows what happened.

  At this time, the song enters the climax of the ending accompaniment.

  No one sang, only Sid's responsible monotone, just like the sound he made on the first day of tryouts - in songs people would naturally bring in the mermaid's wail.

  Rolling water flowers, beaded water droplets, fine foam and thick scales.

  A sunbeam shines into the water, and all that can be seen is a metal dagger waving back and forth, stabbing fiercely into something with scales, rapidly spreading thick green blood, disheveled red long hair, from initially transparent to lifeless milky white fish fins...

  When the song reaches its climax, in the MV, the camera needs to give a close-up of the snow-white dagger starting from the tip of the fishtail and slashing all the way to the end, with thick green blood blurring the lens, scales scattered everywhere, the entire screen is abstract and bloody.

  The clearest picture is of Selene re-kissing the sailor.

  Afterwards, the climax of the song ends and enters the ending part.

  The young sailor awakens on the reef where he first met the Sirens, wondering why he is not dead, and upon looking down, sees that his human legs have turned into a fish tail covered in dark green scales.

  As the young sailor's eyes widened slightly in surprise, the MV ended here.

  "The plot is very full."

  Jiang Chuan's objective evaluation.

  He rubbed his temples and said: "This is too much, what's the point of this? If Siren was a female character I could understand..."

  It turned out to be a man.

  Still hiding.

  This guy is quite good-looking, but if such a thing were really filmed, the entire MV with two places where they kiss without reserve and various vivid scenes scattered all over the place would be enough to drive girls all over the world crazy - at that time, Yuan Jinran and Xi De's "cross-border love" and Jiang Chuan's "love triangle", all sorts of news will flood the sky...

  The more he thought about it, the tighter his eyebrows furrowed.

  "Pirates don't allow women on board, if it's a woman, then there's no story to be written."

  "I'm starting to worry that the movie 'Leviathan' will be banned from broadcasting after all, the malice from the director and screenwriter is completely exposed in this mv..."

  "The theme song's MV won't be promoted domestically, but if it's well-made, it might even win an award, the subject matter is very novel."

  "Aren't you eager to see me and Xide kiss each other repeatedly?" The frown between Jian Ran's eyebrows was so deep it could crush a fly, but for some reason, when he heard Jiang Chuan speak in such a calm and light tone, avoiding the main issue, he felt a bit unhappy. "If you feel that being with me all day is too troublesome, you can just say so directly, there's no need to push me towards..."

  "I just said the script is well-written, why are you overthinking it," Jiang Chuan furrowed his brow upon hearing this, "the kissing scene can be done with a stand-in."

  "No stand-ins." He calmly wiped away any expression that might have appeared on his face and said indifferently, "I've never used a stand-in when filming, it's always been direct shooting."

  Jiang Chuan paused for a moment before lowering his voice and asking, "What's with the inexplicable temper?"

  "Calmly and quietly said: 'No.'"

  As soon as the words fell, his chin was pinched and his entire face was forcibly lifted to meet a pair of azure eyes. His lips were pursed tightly, and then he heard the man say slowly: "You've been under too much pressure lately, if there's anything that bothers you, just say it directly, don't find excuses to pick on me."

  Under the other's calm gaze, the black pupils contracted slightly.

  After a moment, he shook off Jiang Chuan's hand and turned his head to look out the window - although at this time, outside the window was a vast expanse of white except for the clouds, there was nothing else. He paused for a moment, and said lightly: "There's nothing to say, I'm fine."

  As soon as the words fell, the surroundings fell into a silence, and Jiang Chuan stopped talking.

  She gently narrowed her eyes slightly.

  He wasn't "fine", in fact, he was so annoyed that he wanted to blow up the plane.